Peter Keller, CFP® explains how to figure out how much life insurance you need according to your situation and what risks you would like to mitigate.
Transcription:
“Hi, my name is Peter Keller and I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ with Pure Financial Advisors, and welcome to Question of the Week. This week’s question is: How much life insurance should I have? Well, if you have family or others who are dependent on you, you’re going to need life insurance. It sounds a little trickier than it actually is. If you’re clear about your situation and what risks you want to mitigate, it can be an easy process to figure out how much life insurance you should carry.
If you have dependents and you don’t have enough in savings, you’re going to need life insurance. If you’re a business owner and you’re looking at keeping the asset inside the family if something happens to you, you’re going to want to look at life insurance. If you have a larger estate and you have estate taxes to address, you’re going to want to have life insurance. With a few short steps, you can calculate how much you need in death benefit for life insurance.
First, depending on how much debt you have including your mortgage, you’re going to want to cover that. You’ll also want to calculate how much it takes in spending to maintain your standard of living. Then, for what period of time do you want to have that standard of living covered? Then take a look at your larger goals: an automobile purchase, funding a child’s education, how much you need for retirement savings. When you factor all of these in, you’ll have a rough idea of what you should have in the way of a death benefit for your life insurance policy.
My name is Peter Keller, and that was your Question of the Week.”
